Russian spacewalkers prepare for arrival of new space station lab module

Two cosmonauts floated outside the International Space Station early Wednesday to wrap up preparations for detaching the two-decades-old Pirs airlock and docking compartment next month, making way for the long-planned arrival of a new laboratory module.

Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov, opened the hatch of the Poisk module at 1:53 a.m. EDT to officially kick off the 238th spacewalk devoted to station assembly and maintenance, the sixth excursion so far this year and the first for both cosmonauts. For identification, Novitskiy, call sign EV-1, is wearing an Orlan spacesuit with red stripes and is using helmet camera No. 20 while Dubrov, EV-2, is wearing a suit with blue stripes and is using helmetcam 22.